AS DAVAO City continues to enjoy the Alert Level 2 status, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said there has been a challenge in the implementation and observance of health protocols among Dabawenyos.
"For the past two weeks, it has been a struggle na pasabton sa mga tao na (to let the people understand that) we need to continue with the minimum public health standards na implementation nato (that we need to implement)," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio Monday afternoon, November 29.
Duterte-Carpio warned anew that there will be an expected surge of cases in the coming days or months if health protocols will continuously be disregarded.
Among the observations that the mayor noted is the influx of people inside malls, with some adults bringing minors despite still being unvaccinated against Covid-19.
Recently, Duterte-Carpio said the city is looking into bringing back regulations for minors below 11 years old from entering malls.
However, the mayor said in the recent interview that the city will abide by the provision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) guidelines that areas under Alert Level 2, like Davao City, does not impose restrictions on the movement of people across all age groups.
Thus, it will be upon the discretion of the management of establishments to ensure that health protocols will be observed.
Although the mayor said this the effects of the easing of the restrictions have yet to be seen in the current trend of Covid-19 cases in the city.
"But good news pud nga from low risk ang atoang numbers karon nga ginatanaw na indicators sa Department of Health, nagapakita na siya og minimal risk (The good news is that based on the indicators of the Department of Health, the city has improved from being a low risk to a minimal risk). This is a lower classification than low risk," she said.
According to the Department of Health data as of November 28, Davao City only logged one new case of Covid-19 bringing the total active cases to 164.
Aside from mass gatherings and non-compliance of health protocols, Duterte-Carpio also factored in the waning effect of the vaccines and the emergence of the highly-infectious variants as causes for another surge of Covid-19 cases in the city.
On Saturday, November 27, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the new coronavirus variant B.1.1.529 as Omicron, which was reported in South Africa.
Omicron was declared as a variant of concern, which is more infectious compared to the Delta variant.
The mayor said it is possible that the new variant would enter Davao City soon.
Duterte-Carpio urged the public to avoid going to crowded places and enclosed spaces. She said if possible, the public should do their gatherings in an open space.